When I solve a clue and think I’m certain I won’t have to go back to verify it, I tick the clue number in the paper.

This is usually the case if I understand definition and the cryptic build-up fully. This time I did it when I thought I was fairly sure with a double definition but I was wrong. 23 ac “Evade issue that may divide the neighbours”. I said, “that’s HEDGE.” But it wasn’t and that really slowed me in the SE quadrant - the correct answer was FENCE.     Resolution:  Never tick off a double definition.

Problems also in the NW quadrant with 1 ac. It turned out in the end to be GALATEA. It’s a word I’d vaguely heard of and I did get it in the end from the wordplay - GALA(festival)+TEA(meal).   I thought it might be Old Testament but it’s mythology on which I confess I’m weak and I associate with crosswords of days gone by (not that I don’t remember them).   Definition “Maiden coming alive”.    My Collins says “a statue of a maiden brought to life by Aphrodite in response to the prayers of the sculptor Pygmalion, who had fallen in love with his creation.”

These two factors led me to equal my previous slowest time for Quixote in 2006.

Solving time: 44 mins.

But, as always with Quixote, it was an excellent puzzle, everything understood.

ACROSS

9  NEWS (four players at table i.e. playing bridge) + A GENT(toff)

11 ROACH    hard    US usage    roach = cockroach “may be seen in dirty US kitchen”

13 TU (union = trade union) + S (second) + SLING (David’s weapon against the “big bully” Goliath)

19  PLATELET    Hard cryptic definition

22 OLDEN (long-gone) in GAGE (pledge) - pledge to “capture”

26 ME (this writer) + A GREED (big desire for food) no man i.e Ed taken out to give MEAGRE.

27 SOT (drunk) + HERE (in this place)    Liked that.

DOWN

1  GENERATION GAP   Nice cryptic definition that I got first time around.

3  T(he) i.e.  The less he (male split) + RASH (careless).    Tricky.

7  RA (artist) in CAVAN(Irish county)

10 STREET THEATRE    Favourite clue  - very clever cryptic definition using the common phrase “raise the roof”

14  ADDER (snake) in LING (heather).    Older solvers may remember (a problem with nylons).

16 CLUELESS  “What you are now doing is definitely not” Complete the sentence to get the answer.   A good device, used sparingly by setters I think, but totally valid.

20  DAN (man) in LINE (row) i.e, Lindane, an insecticide.   Struggled with this, because of my HEDGE/FENCE confusion.

21 PAT (a man or woman i.e. name common for either) on TEE (area of golf course).    New word for me meaning of a cross having triangular arms outwards..   Hence definition “like a cross”.    Would not have immediately associated “tee” with “area” of a golf course but dictionaries confirm it is correct.

Solving time: 24 minutes

If there were to be awards for consistent setting, I am sure Phi would in with a shout of the award.  His puzzles are always entertaining and are just about right for their target audience, be it Listener, Beelzebub or Indy Magazine.

Today’s puzzle is no exception with the right mix of devices to entertain most solvers.

ACROSS
1 PA + TRIO + TIC -  Where would setters be without the involunatary movement!
6 SAMOS - A M in SOS
9 IMPASSE -  I’M PASSÉ - double definition
11 TRAIL  -  TRIAL (A court case) after minor upset (switching of two letters)
12 ALLOWANCE - LOW in  A LANCE
13 RICIN - Last year’s Polonium 210.  -   RIC(e)IN  - Nice clue telling you to take the drug  (E) out of the phrase RICE IN.
14 YESTERDAY  -  I have revised my parsing of this one.  I originally thought it was YES + a homophone of TODAY.  However it is YES (certainly) + T (time) + ERDAY =  ready for broadcast (AI)!   A lovely clue.
17 PORCELAIN  _  ang of ALICE in PORN
18 CASTE - Group of people =  def Theatricals =  CAST with E (or energy) attached.
19 TUNESMITH -  A good “&lit” clue - COMPOSED does double duty as AI and a part of the whole clue which is the definition.  An anag of  THIS MINUET less I (I ignored)
22 ATRIA  -  one of two tiny grumbles with the puzzle -  using TRIAL again, although a different definition  from 11 ac.  A TRIAL minus L  (failed by new driver)
24  BOROUGH - OR in BOUGH
26 ELEGY -  My other tiny “grumble” A fine working-  EG (say) in ELY (a cathedral) - perhaps one of the esteemed minds would say whether in this case cathedral should have a capital letter because Ely is a place rather than a descriptive word. 

DOWN
2 TAP DANCER - a clever working -  nice definition “one performs best on lino” -   It works as a anagram of AND (stumbles- AI) inside of an anagram of CARPET (SHAGGY - AI).  Although I worked it out quickly - this threw me as I was thinking a TAPCER must be a type of shaggy carpet and thinking about checking in Chambers!  D’oh!
4 THE LADY VANISHES -  Nice laugh-out-loud cryptic definition -  Hmmm.. where I have I seen that phrase before?
5 CASTLES IN THE AIR -  Another nice witty cryptic definition. If you don’t get it - think chess!
6 SINEW -  Clever!  Bridge pairs  are South and North, East and West with I within.
8 SPARE TYRE -  This was one of the last I finished (along with 18)  From the letters there I kept seeing SNAKE EYES as a possible fit and this derailed me looking for the right thing.  However it dawned on me and away I went -  a double def. clue
15 EUCHARIST -  EU - Union with  IS inside CHART (plan)
16 DISARMING - Nice double def.
20 NURSE -  R (right) in   N USE  (New employment)
21 SAUCY -  SAY about UC (Heads of University College)

All in all - a nice way to end the week, and gird the loins for the weekend onslaught and knowing what’s coming, loins will need to be girded!
Finally, just a quick note to everyone who ordered the Bunthorne Tribute Book.  Most orders have now been despatched and should be with you in the next couple of days.  Feedback most welcome, and if you want a copy, we have increased the print run because of demand and there are a few left -  £5 (+ £1 UK P&P, £2 Europe and £3 Outside Europe postage). Mail  bunthornebook@btinternet.com  to get a copy.

In keeping with Orlando’s divided personality, perhaps, there seemed to be an easy half and a difficult half to this puzzle - not that I’m assigning a specific gender to either! I got most of the top half and part of the bottom done in 5-10 minutes, then stewed over the fag-end for another 15-20. Two Shakespeare references, both plays I did at ‘A’ level… I wonder if Orlando did A levels in 1981 as well? 

ACROSS:

9. BACK TO SQUARE ONE. ‘Back to’ = OT, even I = SQUARE ONE. The surface is presumably something about reading the Bible, but doesn’t seem to mean much.

10. DO(n)NE.

11. ASBESTOS. AS BEST Osprey’S - an imaginative way of clueing OS - but cream on osprey’s wings - who? why? Was it applied by a vet, or are we talking ‘Osprey wings a la creme’?

14. GOSPELLER. G O SPELLER. Gee Oh is nice, but I can’t see why ‘getting hot’. 

16. TAPER. As in get narrower. Nice clue - I groped for the anthithesis of flare, but this is spot on. 

18. ENAMOURED. Auden more*. A somewhat whimsical anagram indicator? Or are we both misusing the word?

20. FAMISHED. AMISH in FED - simple but lovely.

25. LEE HARVEY OSWALD. Lay overhead + slew* (oddball) + lit, ref JFK assassination. I’m now so conditioned to look for partial-word anagram indicators in the Guardian that I was trying to find an anagram of ‘ball lay overhead’ meaning ’slew. Technically the definition should be … ‘who lay overhead and slew’. Always assuming it was LHW in the book depository - was the grassy knoll high enough to be overhead?

26. SEIZE. 16 in French = ’French count’. Except it doesn’t really, does it? 

27. TENNESSEE. (tennis-y). Excellently deployed pun. I was about to fulminate on the lack of definition, but of course it’s (Tennessee) Williams, the writer. And the homonym’s not exact, but close enough to work for me.

DOWN

1. RABID. B in RAID. Does the Ximenean objection to ‘Gateshead’ extend to ’bridgehead’ for B? It’s not the head of a bridge exactly. I’m happy with it anyway.

3. RITZ. Sounds like ‘writs’. Good homonym indicator - ‘for auditor’ - used very naturally.

 6. TURKEY TROT. This one took a while. Maybe I haven’t been watching Strictly Come Dancing enough. Also, I think of Trots more as Socialist, associating  Communism  with the CP and its offshoots. Then again, Trotsky was certainly a Communist, and groups like the RCP and RCG were Trotskyist, I believe.

7. PLOTTER. Ref Cassius, one of the plotters in Julius Caesar.

8. CREOSOTED. O SOT in CREED. ‘Without’ is an archaic containment indicator, as in ‘without a city wall’ (I never understood as a kid why a green hill would have a city wall, but never mind). Seems to be used back to front though - to me this gives OSCREEDOT.

 12. HEARTSEASE. Is another word for the flower. I only got this because it cropped up in another crossword recently, and it seems a weak cryptic indication for a hard word with no initial letter. But it wasn’t going to be a homophobic insult in the G, was it?

13. BLUE VELVET. As in the film. 

14. GATEFOLDS. FOLD in GATES. I was looking for a software company, rather than the ubergeek himself, and kept thinking ’galleys’ - but got there in the end.

19. REPEATS. REP (theatre) + EATS. Works well.

23. CYAN. Y in CAN. After gatefolds, another print reference - cyan’s the blue principally used in printing, less so in everyday life.

24. ISLE. ELSI(nore) rev. Quite tough. You have to remember Hamlet came from Elsinore, not just think Denmark, and know that Muck is a Scottish island.